Asian Studies
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Choreographing in Color: Filipinos, Hip-hop, and the Cultural Politics of Euphemism Book talk
Speaker: Dr. Lorenzo Perillo (The University of Hawai`i at Mānoa)
Date: June 27th, 15.00 - 16.00
Venue: Room 5025, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin
In Choreographing in Color, J. Lorenzo Perillo investigates the development of Filipino popular dance and performance since the late 20th century. Drawing from nearly two decades of ethnography, choreographic analysis, and community engagement with artists, choreographers, and organizers, Perillo asserts the importance in shifting attention away from the predominant Philippine neoliberal and U.S. imperialist emphasis on Filipinos as superb mimics, heroic migrants, model minorities, and natural dancers and instead asks: what does it mean for Filipinos to navigate the violent forces of empire and neoliberalism with street dance and Hip-Hop? Employing critical race, feminist, and performance studies, Perillo analyzes the conditions of possibility that gave rise to Filipino dance phenomena across viral, migrant, theatrical, competitive, and diplomatic performance. In this talk, Perillo will share from the book to discuss examples of euphemism, which enable social critique about dancers’ critical role in both Filipino migration and Hip-hop’s globalization. Click here for more details.
Date: June 27th, 15.00 - 16.00
Venue: Room 5025, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin
In Choreographing in Color, J. Lorenzo Perillo investigates the development of Filipino popular dance and performance since the late 20th century. Drawing from nearly two decades of ethnography, choreographic analysis, and community engagement with artists, choreographers, and organizers, Perillo asserts the importance in shifting attention away from the predominant Philippine neoliberal and U.S. imperialist emphasis on Filipinos as superb mimics, heroic migrants, model minorities, and natural dancers and instead asks: what does it mean for Filipinos to navigate the violent forces of empire and neoliberalism with street dance and Hip-Hop? Employing critical race, feminist, and performance studies, Perillo analyzes the conditions of possibility that gave rise to Filipino dance phenomena across viral, migrant, theatrical, competitive, and diplomatic performance. In this talk, Perillo will share from the book to discuss examples of euphemism, which enable social critique about dancers’ critical role in both Filipino migration and Hip-hop’s globalization. Click here for more details.
Ancient scripts, modern uses: a lecture to welcome all participants to the Summer School for Ancient Trans-Himalayan Languages (SSATH)
Speaker: Prof. Tim Bodt (Trinity College, Dublin)
Date: Sunday 15th June 2025, 14:00 - 15:30
Venue: Arts Building, Room 4050B
As the opening presentation of this summer school on ancient Trans-Himalayan languages, Dr. Bodt will present an example of how the script of one of these languages, namely Tibetan, can be used to develop an orthography for a language spoken at present, namely Tshangla. Dr. Bodt will give an introduction to the Tibetan script and to the Tshangla language. Then, Dr. Bodt will discuss proposals for an orthography for Tshangla based on the Tibetan script, and also examine the potential issues that arise when doing this. Click here for more details.
Date: Sunday 15th June 2025, 14:00 - 15:30
Venue: Arts Building, Room 4050B
As the opening presentation of this summer school on ancient Trans-Himalayan languages, Dr. Bodt will present an example of how the script of one of these languages, namely Tibetan, can be used to develop an orthography for a language spoken at present, namely Tshangla. Dr. Bodt will give an introduction to the Tibetan script and to the Tshangla language. Then, Dr. Bodt will discuss proposals for an orthography for Tshangla based on the Tibetan script, and also examine the potential issues that arise when doing this. Click here for more details.
Visit to the Embassy of Malaysia
On 29 May 2025, the Director and Deputy Director of the Trinity Centre for Asian Studies, Professor Nathan Hill and Dr Tim Bodt, were warmly received at the Embassy of Malaysia in Dublin. The meeting with His Excellency Wan Aznainizam Yusri Wan Abd Rashid, Ambassador of Malaysia to Ireland, provided an opportunity to explore future avenues of collaboration between the Embassy and Trinity, particularly in support of Asian Studies in Ireland. Professor Hill and Dr Bodt also had the pleasure of speaking with Ms Intan Nadia Ramli, Counsellor and Head of Chancery. We are grateful to the Ambassador and his team for their warm hospitality and look forward to continued engagement.
Click here for more details.
The Reception of Montesquieu in Asia: How the Enlightenment Influenced China and Japan
Speaker: Anne Cheng (Chair of Chinese Intellectual History, Collège de France )
Date: Wednesday, 28 May 2025, 12:00pm
Venue: Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, 36 Fenian Street, Dublin 2, D02 CH22 ,
Date: Wednesday, 28 May 2025, 12:00pm
Venue: Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, 36 Fenian Street, Dublin 2, D02 CH22 ,
One of the most cited statements from Montesquieu’s De l’Esprit des lois is undoubtedly: “Therefore, China is a despotic state whose principle is fear.” This presentation proposes to explore how Montesquieu’s political thought, and particularly his analysis of despotism, has been received and interpreted in East Asia, focusing first on Meiji Japan and then on late imperial China.
We will examine the strategies adopted in Japan to translate and conceptualize key notions such as the separation of powers, the classification of governments, and the opposition between despotism and constitutionalism, within the context of Japan’s own political modernization.
The second part will focus on how Chinese literati at the turn of the 20th century appropriated these concepts, navigating between admiration for Western political theory and the constraints of their own intellectual and political traditions. Finally, we will consider how contemporary Chinese intellectuals are revisiting Montesquieu’s verdict and its Japanese mediation in a context of rising nationalism.
Many Centers, One Heart: Buddhist Relics and the Translation of the Mahābodhi
Speaker: Arthur Philip McKeown (Carleton College)
Date: Friday 16 May 2025, 4pm
Venue: Arts Building, Room 4050B
Many comparisons have been made between the early Christian Church’s treatment of relics and the Buddhist cult of relics, at least as early as Gregory Schopen’s account of relic veneration at the Mahābodhi temple in Bodhgayā. While the movement of Buddhist relics has also been studied, it has not yet been compared to the similar movement in the early Church. Translation (Lat. translatio) – the term used for this formal relocation of relics – and its many senses may shed light on the complementary Buddhist practice, helping to distinguish it from a mere act of triumphalism. This paper argues that unlike in the Christian context, with the honorable placement of a Mahābodhi/Vajrāsana at sites across the Buddhist world, these target countries then became vajrāsanas, axes mundi bringing together the metaphors of king and Buddha. The importance of these "equal but better" sites depended on the continued memory of Bodh Gaya, almost exclusively for the presence of the Vajrāsana and Bodhi tree. Click here for more details.
Date: Friday 16 May 2025, 4pm
Venue: Arts Building, Room 4050B
Many comparisons have been made between the early Christian Church’s treatment of relics and the Buddhist cult of relics, at least as early as Gregory Schopen’s account of relic veneration at the Mahābodhi temple in Bodhgayā. While the movement of Buddhist relics has also been studied, it has not yet been compared to the similar movement in the early Church. Translation (Lat. translatio) – the term used for this formal relocation of relics – and its many senses may shed light on the complementary Buddhist practice, helping to distinguish it from a mere act of triumphalism. This paper argues that unlike in the Christian context, with the honorable placement of a Mahābodhi/Vajrāsana at sites across the Buddhist world, these target countries then became vajrāsanas, axes mundi bringing together the metaphors of king and Buddha. The importance of these "equal but better" sites depended on the continued memory of Bodh Gaya, almost exclusively for the presence of the Vajrāsana and Bodhi tree. Click here for more details.
Thinking about how to think about China Studies
Special guest lecture featured for celebration of the 10th anniversary of TCAS
Speaker: Dr. Sam Crane (Edward S. Greenbaum 1910 Professor in Political Science and Director of the Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford University)
19th May 2025, 5pm-7pm
Venue: TRiSS seminar room, Trinity College Dublin
What kinds of epistemic assumptions do we make when we do China Studies? What are our working definitions of “China,” the object of our study? How do we evaluate statements made about “China” or some aspects of “China”? This talk will engage with these sorts of questions, drawing on the philosophy of critical realism. Click here for more details.
Speaker: Dr. Sam Crane (Edward S. Greenbaum 1910 Professor in Political Science and Director of the Williams-Exeter Programme at Oxford University)
19th May 2025, 5pm-7pm
Venue: TRiSS seminar room, Trinity College Dublin
What kinds of epistemic assumptions do we make when we do China Studies? What are our working definitions of “China,” the object of our study? How do we evaluate statements made about “China” or some aspects of “China”? This talk will engage with these sorts of questions, drawing on the philosophy of critical realism. Click here for more details.
Manuscripts and manuscript-making in Laos and Northern Thailand
Speaker: Agnieszka Helman-Ważny (University of Hamburg)
13th May 2025, 11am-1pm
Venue: TRiSS seminar room, Trinity College Dublin
The history of books in Southeast Asia is yet to be studied systematically and currently seems to include more theory and opinion than evidence. A vast number of Southeast Asian manuscripts have been digitised and made available to the public online in recent years, however not so many of them have been yet studied with codicological and archaeometric methods. This talk explores the materiality of selected Buddhist manuscripts from the collections of the Buddhist Archives in Luang Prabang, Laos, and the Chiang Mai Rajabhat University Library in Thailand. Click here for more details.
13th May 2025, 11am-1pm
Venue: TRiSS seminar room, Trinity College Dublin
The history of books in Southeast Asia is yet to be studied systematically and currently seems to include more theory and opinion than evidence. A vast number of Southeast Asian manuscripts have been digitised and made available to the public online in recent years, however not so many of them have been yet studied with codicological and archaeometric methods. This talk explores the materiality of selected Buddhist manuscripts from the collections of the Buddhist Archives in Luang Prabang, Laos, and the Chiang Mai Rajabhat University Library in Thailand. Click here for more details.
Seekers of Truth: The Life and Deeds of The South Asian Tradition of Etymology
Speaker: Prof. Paolo Visigalli (Shanghai Normal University )
10th April 2025, 1:00pm – 2.00pm
Venue: TRiSS seminar room, Trinity College Dublin
This talk explores one of the world’s most influential yet largely unnoticed linguistic and hermeneutic traditions, the South Asian Tradition of Etymology. Spanning millennia and innervating a great variety of forms of discourse in languages such as Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese, Tibetan, and English, the South Asian Tradition of Etymology underlies key episodes in the intellectual and religious history of South Asian and South Asia-influenced cultures. Click here for more details.
10th April 2025, 1:00pm – 2.00pm
Venue: TRiSS seminar room, Trinity College Dublin
This talk explores one of the world’s most influential yet largely unnoticed linguistic and hermeneutic traditions, the South Asian Tradition of Etymology. Spanning millennia and innervating a great variety of forms of discourse in languages such as Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese, Tibetan, and English, the South Asian Tradition of Etymology underlies key episodes in the intellectual and religious history of South Asian and South Asia-influenced cultures. Click here for more details.
Fatherhood in Chinese societies: A glocal story
Speaker: Prof. Xuan Li (University of Copenhagen)
10th April 2025, 5:00pm – 6.00pm
Venue: TRiSS seminar room, Trinity College Dublin
Globally, the gender gap in childcare work persists. As part of the worldwide call for greater male participation in childrearing and domestic work, the Chinese societies have recently witnessed recurrent public discussions on father involvement and shifts in paternal behaviours. Yet the changes in Chinese fatherhood culture and conduct appear to differ from those in Europe or the United States in its focus on fathers’ parental roles and under-emphasis of fathers’ roles in promoting gender equality. Grounded in the transformations of family roles throughout China’s modernization process, the above changes in Chinese fatherhood may consolidate instead of challenge the patriarchal power structure in the family. Click here for more details.
10th April 2025, 5:00pm – 6.00pm
Venue: TRiSS seminar room, Trinity College Dublin
Globally, the gender gap in childcare work persists. As part of the worldwide call for greater male participation in childrearing and domestic work, the Chinese societies have recently witnessed recurrent public discussions on father involvement and shifts in paternal behaviours. Yet the changes in Chinese fatherhood culture and conduct appear to differ from those in Europe or the United States in its focus on fathers’ parental roles and under-emphasis of fathers’ roles in promoting gender equality. Grounded in the transformations of family roles throughout China’s modernization process, the above changes in Chinese fatherhood may consolidate instead of challenge the patriarchal power structure in the family. Click here for more details.
How Digital Intelligence is Shaping Curriculum Leadership in Chinese High Schools
Speaker: Dr Xie Yanjuan (Shandong Normal University & Shandong Academy of Educational Sciences)
Date: 4pm, Wednesday, 9 April 2025
Venue: Arts Building, Room 5033 (Seminar Room A), Trinity College Dublin
China’s education system is rapidly embracing digital transformation, reshaping how school leaders manage curricula. This talk explores how digital intelligence tools can evaluate and enhance high school principals
Date: 4pm, Wednesday, 9 April 2025
Venue: Arts Building, Room 5033 (Seminar Room A), Trinity College Dublin
China’s education system is rapidly embracing digital transformation, reshaping how school leaders manage curricula. This talk explores how digital intelligence tools can evaluate and enhance high school principals
New staff member Dr. Timotheus (Tim) Bodt joins TCAS
Dr. Timotheus A. Bodt joins the Trinity Centre for Asian Studies as Associate Professor in Asian Studies, bringing his expertise in language documentation, historical linguistics, language revitalization, and the study of Trans-Himalayan languages. He holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Bern (2017) and has previously held two postdoctoral research positions at SOAS University of London.
Click here for more details.
Balancing Commerce and Diplomacy: Japan’s Strategy for Economic Security
Speaker: Christina L. Davis
Date: 5 PM, April 1st, 2025
Venue: Old Physics Theatre, Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI, 86 St Stephen’s Green) At a time of global confrontation between China, the United States, and Europe on trade, climate change, and digital governance, Japan has emerged as a leader in defining economic security, advancing critical industries, and forging strategic partnerships. Despite a history of intra-bureaucratic rivalry, Japan now presents a united front in supporting free trade agreements like the CPTPP, shaping the G20 agenda on AI, and promoting the Free and Open Indo-Pacific initiative. This talk will explore how administrative reforms have enhanced Japan’s ability to align economic interests with foreign policy, enabling it to navigate geopolitical rivalries as a global economic power. Click here for more details.
Date: 5 PM, April 1st, 2025
Venue: Old Physics Theatre, Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI, 86 St Stephen’s Green) At a time of global confrontation between China, the United States, and Europe on trade, climate change, and digital governance, Japan has emerged as a leader in defining economic security, advancing critical industries, and forging strategic partnerships. Despite a history of intra-bureaucratic rivalry, Japan now presents a united front in supporting free trade agreements like the CPTPP, shaping the G20 agenda on AI, and promoting the Free and Open Indo-Pacific initiative. This talk will explore how administrative reforms have enhanced Japan’s ability to align economic interests with foreign policy, enabling it to navigate geopolitical rivalries as a global economic power. Click here for more details.
The rhythm of semiotic landscape: hopeful soundscapes and language ideologies among Nepalese followers of a Japanese New Religion
Speaker: Marilena Frisone
Date: March 13th 5pm - 6pm
Venue: Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, D02 CH22
Based on fifteen-month fieldwork, this paper intends to expand the concept of semiotic landscape, by looking at the specific temporalities it produces and the language ideologies it entails. Looking at how space, language ideologies and sounds are combined during the ritual performance, I will show how semiotic landscapes have the effect of shaping the subjectivity of practitioners, connecting them to a different place and hoped-for time. Click here for more details.
Date: March 13th 5pm - 6pm
Venue: Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, D02 CH22
Based on fifteen-month fieldwork, this paper intends to expand the concept of semiotic landscape, by looking at the specific temporalities it produces and the language ideologies it entails. Looking at how space, language ideologies and sounds are combined during the ritual performance, I will show how semiotic landscapes have the effect of shaping the subjectivity of practitioners, connecting them to a different place and hoped-for time. Click here for more details.
瀧 Kroŋ: The Sinitic Wanderings of an Austroasiatic Word
Wednesday 12 March 2025, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Venue: Room 4073, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin
The word 瀧 (’turbulence’) exhibits two phonetically irregular variants in the Guǎngyùn Middle Chinese dictionary. This presentation will explore the historical phonological development of these irregularities, attempting to identify their origins. It will examine the borrowing of 瀧 (’turbulence’) from Middle Chinese dialects into mainstream Middle Chinese. It will propose an Austroasiatic etymology of the doublets 瀧 (’turbulence’) and 江 (’river’) and explain their divergence through sound change. The discussion will also consider the possible geographical distribution of 瀧 (’turbulence’) as a lexical item, in particular using early Japanese evidence. Click here for more details.
Venue: Room 4073, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin
The word 瀧 (’turbulence’) exhibits two phonetically irregular variants in the Guǎngyùn Middle Chinese dictionary. This presentation will explore the historical phonological development of these irregularities, attempting to identify their origins. It will examine the borrowing of 瀧 (’turbulence’) from Middle Chinese dialects into mainstream Middle Chinese. It will propose an Austroasiatic etymology of the doublets 瀧 (’turbulence’) and 江 (’river’) and explain their divergence through sound change. The discussion will also consider the possible geographical distribution of 瀧 (’turbulence’) as a lexical item, in particular using early Japanese evidence. Click here for more details.
Remembering the Beggar Lama: Rethinking Cultural Survival on the Sino-Tibetan Borderlands
Tuesday, 11 March 2025,11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Venue: Room 3081, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin
This informal talk reflects on the life of Tsanlha Ngawang (1930–2025), the “Beggar Lama,” a Tibetan Buddhist polymath whose journey offers profound insights into the resilience and evolution of Tibetan culture amidst political and ideological upheaval.
This talk will explore how Ngawang’s intellectual and spiritual contributions shed light on the persistence of Tibetan identity in the face of profound challenges. Click here for more details.
Venue: Room 3081, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin
This informal talk reflects on the life of Tsanlha Ngawang (1930–2025), the “Beggar Lama,” a Tibetan Buddhist polymath whose journey offers profound insights into the resilience and evolution of Tibetan culture amidst political and ideological upheaval.
This talk will explore how Ngawang’s intellectual and spiritual contributions shed light on the persistence of Tibetan identity in the face of profound challenges. Click here for more details.
Lafcadio Hearn’s Japan: from Enchantment to Intercultural Understanding
Date: March 7th, 2025; 09:00 - 19:00,
Venue: Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
Full-day Workshop hosted by Trinity Centre for Asian Studies, Trinity College Dublin. In tandem with the exhibition’s opening at Farmleigh Gallery, Trinity College Dublin’s Centre for Asian Studies is organising a one-day academic workshop honouring the life and works of Lafcadio Hearn, recognising him as a person dedicated to understanding across cultures, ambitious in his rejection of bigotry, and sensitive to Japanese life and ethics despite their contrast to the West. Speakers include prominent scholars, diplomats and politicians from Ireland, Japan, Britain and USA.
Click here for more details.
Venue: Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
Full-day Workshop hosted by Trinity Centre for Asian Studies, Trinity College Dublin. In tandem with the exhibition’s opening at Farmleigh Gallery, Trinity College Dublin’s Centre for Asian Studies is organising a one-day academic workshop honouring the life and works of Lafcadio Hearn, recognising him as a person dedicated to understanding across cultures, ambitious in his rejection of bigotry, and sensitive to Japanese life and ethics despite their contrast to the West. Speakers include prominent scholars, diplomats and politicians from Ireland, Japan, Britain and USA.
Click here for more details.
Lunar New Year Celebration: Student Dance Performance
Date: 3pm, Friday, 7th February 2025,
Venue: The Global Room, Trinity College Dublin (located on the first floor of the Watts Building, adjacent to the Academic Registry)
Trinity College Dublin, in collaboration with the Chinese Embassy in Ireland, invites you to celebrate the Year of the Dragon with a dance performance by student of Beijing Normal University. This festive event will feature traditional Chinese dances and an interactive session, where attendees can learn some moves from the performers. A perfect opportunity to experience the joy and beauty of Chinese culture during the Lunar New Year celebrations!
Click here for more details.
Venue: The Global Room, Trinity College Dublin (located on the first floor of the Watts Building, adjacent to the Academic Registry)
Trinity College Dublin, in collaboration with the Chinese Embassy in Ireland, invites you to celebrate the Year of the Dragon with a dance performance by student of Beijing Normal University. This festive event will feature traditional Chinese dances and an interactive session, where attendees can learn some moves from the performers. A perfect opportunity to experience the joy and beauty of Chinese culture during the Lunar New Year celebrations!
Click here for more details.
Book Launch: Finnegans Wake in Mandarin
Date: Tue 4 Feb 2025 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM GMT
Venue: Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, D02 CH22
We are pleased to present a new translation of Joyce’s Finnegans Wake into Mandarin, the first complete translation of its kind. This new translation gives an Eastern perspective to Joyce’s seemingly unsystematic ideological system.
Click here for more details.
Venue: Trinity Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation, D02 CH22
We are pleased to present a new translation of Joyce’s Finnegans Wake into Mandarin, the first complete translation of its kind. This new translation gives an Eastern perspective to Joyce’s seemingly unsystematic ideological system.
Click here for more details.
The Life of a Painting after the End of (This) Life: What have anthropologists and museum curators missed?
17:00 - 18:00 Dublin time, Thursday 23rd January
Venue: Zoom
Focusing on a specific genre of Tibetan Buddhist art, this talk illuminates how we can better understand and, in some instances, display agentive images in intercultural settings. This talk is presented by Ming Xue. Ming Xue received her Ph.D. in anthropology from UCLA and is currently a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York.
Click here for more details.
Venue: Zoom
Focusing on a specific genre of Tibetan Buddhist art, this talk illuminates how we can better understand and, in some instances, display agentive images in intercultural settings. This talk is presented by Ming Xue. Ming Xue received her Ph.D. in anthropology from UCLA and is currently a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York.
Click here for more details.
Human Translators in Focus: Exploring the Human Aspects of Japanese Literary Translation through a Sociological Lens
22 – 24 October 2025 - Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Venue: Hybrid
This is the first call for submissions
Click here for more details
This conference showcases research on the human aspects of Japanese literary translation. It contributes to the development of Japanese Translation Studies and raises the visibility of the Japanese context within Translation Studies.
Venue: Hybrid
This is the first call for submissions
Click here for more details
This conference showcases research on the human aspects of Japanese literary translation. It contributes to the development of Japanese Translation Studies and raises the visibility of the Japanese context within Translation Studies.
Taiwan–Ireland Poetry Translation Competition Winners
Wednesday, 11 December 2024, 10:00–11:00 am GMT
Venue: Zoom Click here for more details
Each year, the Taiwan–Ireland Poetry Translation Competition invites participants from across the globe to explore the diverse linguistic and cultural traditions of Taiwan and their connections to Irish poetry. This year’s competition centers on the poem Notes on Interviews with the Slamaw《莎拉茅群訪談記事》by Temu Suyan. The poem, written in Mandarin, reflects the experiences of the Slamaw people, an indigenous subgroup of the Atayal tribe from Taiwan’s Dajia River Basin. The event is free and open to all.
Venue: Zoom Click here for more details
Each year, the Taiwan–Ireland Poetry Translation Competition invites participants from across the globe to explore the diverse linguistic and cultural traditions of Taiwan and their connections to Irish poetry. This year’s competition centers on the poem Notes on Interviews with the Slamaw《莎拉茅群訪談記事》by Temu Suyan. The poem, written in Mandarin, reflects the experiences of the Slamaw people, an indigenous subgroup of the Atayal tribe from Taiwan’s Dajia River Basin. The event is free and open to all.
Webinar: Juan Qian (University of Chicago) - The Loyalty-Compliance Tradeoff: Political Campaigns and Bureaucratic Control in Modern China
Thursday, 28 November 2024, 5:00–6:00 pm,
Venue: Zoom Click here for more details
Between 1949 and 1976, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under Chairman Mao Zedong launched a series of chaotic, mass-mobilized campaigns to purge political dissidents and transform China’s socioeconomic landscape. In his book manuscript, Juan Qian explores (1) why there exist significant geospatial variations in the intensity and outcomes of these campaigns, and (2) how Mao-era campaigns shaped the norms, compliance, and responsiveness of the Chinese bureaucracy at the local level in both the short and long term. Click here for more details
Venue: Zoom Click here for more details
Between 1949 and 1976, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under Chairman Mao Zedong launched a series of chaotic, mass-mobilized campaigns to purge political dissidents and transform China’s socioeconomic landscape. In his book manuscript, Juan Qian explores (1) why there exist significant geospatial variations in the intensity and outcomes of these campaigns, and (2) how Mao-era campaigns shaped the norms, compliance, and responsiveness of the Chinese bureaucracy at the local level in both the short and long term. Click here for more details
Xun Gong (University of Vienna) – Language Contact and the Reconstruction of Tangut Phonology
Tuesday, 19 November 2024, 4:00–5:30 pm,
TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, Sixth Floor
The Tangut language, once spoken by the Western Xia dynasty (1038–1227), presents a unique case for linguistic reconstruction due to its extinction and the limited availability of contemporary data. In this talk, Xun Gong will explore how language contact phenomena have influenced the reconstruction of Tangut phonology. Click here for more details
TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, Sixth Floor
The Tangut language, once spoken by the Western Xia dynasty (1038–1227), presents a unique case for linguistic reconstruction due to its extinction and the limited availability of contemporary data. In this talk, Xun Gong will explore how language contact phenomena have influenced the reconstruction of Tangut phonology. Click here for more details
Swami Sarvapriyananda - Spirituality for our times: Sister Nivedita on Vedanta and Vivekananda
Thursday 14th November 2024, 7:30pm,
Trinity College Chapel, Front Square
The Trinity Centre for Asian Studies are pleased to host the Inaugural Margaret Noble (Sister Nivedita) Lecture, to be given by Swami Sarvapriyananda. The lecture will be introduced by Professor Nathan Hill, Director of Asian Studies, Trinity College Dublin. Click here for more details
Trinity College Chapel, Front Square
The Trinity Centre for Asian Studies are pleased to host the Inaugural Margaret Noble (Sister Nivedita) Lecture, to be given by Swami Sarvapriyananda. The lecture will be introduced by Professor Nathan Hill, Director of Asian Studies, Trinity College Dublin. Click here for more details
Dr. Ching-Ling Wang (Curator of Chinese Art, Rijksmuseum), Weaving the Faith: Buddhist Hangings at the Qing Court in the 18th Century
Wednesday 6th November 2024, 6:30pm - 7:30pm,
Hybrid- Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity College Dublin. Also via Zoom
The lecture will explore the creation and significance of Buddhist hangings within the Qing imperial court, with a focus on the conserved 18th-century silk hanging, "Buddhas of the Three Generations." The event is co-hosted by our institution and the Chester Beatty, and the conservation project has been supported by the Heritage Council. Click here for more details
Hybrid- Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity College Dublin. Also via Zoom
The lecture will explore the creation and significance of Buddhist hangings within the Qing imperial court, with a focus on the conserved 18th-century silk hanging, "Buddhas of the Three Generations." The event is co-hosted by our institution and the Chester Beatty, and the conservation project has been supported by the Heritage Council. Click here for more details
Joanna Bialek (Trinity College Dublin) - Reconstructing Grammatical Meaning in Extinct Languages: The Case of Passive in Old Literary Tibetan
Tuesday 5 November 2024, 4-5:30pm,
TRiSS seminar room
The talk shall clarify several misconceptions or misunderstandings that have accumulated over time concerning passive in Tibetic languages and that exert their influences far beyond the sphere of language acquisition and use. Click here for more details
TRiSS seminar room
The talk shall clarify several misconceptions or misunderstandings that have accumulated over time concerning passive in Tibetic languages and that exert their influences far beyond the sphere of language acquisition and use. Click here for more details
Jacob Dalton -- Managing Secrecy: Early Tibetan Imperial Attitudes toward Tantric Buddhism
Thursday, 31 October, 5-6pm,
TRiSS seminar room
This talk will explore the Tibetan empire's approach to tantric Buddhism during the mid-to-late eighth century, when the empire was at the peak of its power. Jacob Dalton is the Khyentse Foundation Distinguished University Professor in Tibetan Buddhism at UC Berkeley. Click here for more details
TRiSS seminar room
This talk will explore the Tibetan empire's approach to tantric Buddhism during the mid-to-late eighth century, when the empire was at the peak of its power. Jacob Dalton is the Khyentse Foundation Distinguished University Professor in Tibetan Buddhism at UC Berkeley. Click here for more details
Hiroshima & Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Exhibition: 22-25 October 2024
Trinity College Dublin is honoured to host the Hiroshima & Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Exhibition, co-organized by the Embassy of Japan in Ireland and the School of Religion, Theology, and Peace Studies. Click here for more details
Adrian Tien Prize awarded to Min Chen
We are delighted to announce that Min Chen has been awarded the Adrian Tien Prize for her exceptional dissertation titled, "Research on the Tones and Tone Sandhi of the Deyang Dialect in Sichuan
Congratulations to the 2024-25 Chinese Studies scholarship recipients
These scholarships are a testament to the dedication and excellence of our students, and we look forward to the remarkable contributions they will make to our academic community. Warmest congratulations to Yile Gu, Siyuan Liu, Earl Mok, and Wenxuan Yang on their remarkable achievements
Joanna Bialek to join TCAS with a Marie Curie project on ancient Tibetan funerary rituals
Joanna Bialek has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship under the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) for the project “Tibetan Obsolete Mortuary practices and afterlife Beliefs. Language conservatism of religious writings in the service of Proto-Bodish reconstruction” (TOMB), which will run for the next two years.
Click here for more details
Swami Balabhadrananda -- The Self and Divinity in Vedantae
Tuesday 10 September, 2-3pm,
venue: room 2026, Arts Building Annex (across from Douglas Hyde Gallery)
This talk will delve into the core concepts of Advaita Vedanta, a non-dualistic school of Hindu philosophy that posits the essential oneness of the Self (Atman) and the ultimate reality (Brahman). Swami Balabhadrananda will explore how this tradition accounts for the relationship between the individual soul and the divine.
Click here for more details
venue: room 2026, Arts Building Annex (across from Douglas Hyde Gallery)
This talk will delve into the core concepts of Advaita Vedanta, a non-dualistic school of Hindu philosophy that posits the essential oneness of the Self (Atman) and the ultimate reality (Brahman). Swami Balabhadrananda will explore how this tradition accounts for the relationship between the individual soul and the divine.
Click here for more details
TCAS hosts two lectures by Visiting Professor Kirill Solonin (Renmin University of China)
Kirill Solonin (Renmin University of China) - Tangut Synthesis: Sino-Tibetan Buddhism during 11th-13th centuries
Monday 20 May, 10am-12pm,
venue: TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor.
Kirill Solonin (Renmin University of China) - Who were the Tanguts and Why study them.
Friday 17 May, 2-4pm, venue: TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor.
Click here for more details of both lectures
Monday 20 May, 10am-12pm,
venue: TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor.
Kirill Solonin (Renmin University of China) - Who were the Tanguts and Why study them.
Friday 17 May, 2-4pm, venue: TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor.
Click here for more details of both lectures
Webinar: Ruiqing Shen (National University of Singapore) - Inland Min in a historical perspective
Friday 17 May 10:30am-12:00pm (Dublin) ,
Venue: Zoom
note: this event is in Chinese
Click here for more details
Venue: Zoom
note: this event is in Chinese
Click here for more details
Webinar: John Carlyle (University of Washington) - Some Remarks on the Development of OC *a in Min Chinese
Friday 3rd May 10:30am-12:00pm (Dublin),
venue: Zoom
Click here for more details
venue: Zoom
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Webinar: Kwok Bit-Chee (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) - 從比較音韻的角度看莆仙片方言在沿海閩語中的位置
Friday 10 May 10:30am-12:00pm (Dublin), 17:30pm-19pm (Hong Kong),
venue: Zoom
Note: This event is in Chinese.
Click here for more details
venue: Zoom
Note: This event is in Chinese.
Click here for more details
New approaches to computational historical linguistics in the Asian context
Monday 29 April, 2-4pm ,
venue: TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor
Click here for more details
venue: TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor
Click here for more details
Simone O’Malley Sutton - The Chinese May Fourth Generation and the Irish Literary Revival: Writers of Modernism and Fighters against the Colonial Condition
Thursday 11 April, 5-5:45pm,
venue: TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor
Click here for more details
venue: TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor
Click here for more details
Martin Worthington (Trinity College Dublin) - How consistent is Akkadian idiom? Attributive adjectives and the attributive construct state
Tuesday 9 April, 4-5pm,
venue: TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor
Click here for more details
venue: TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor
Click here for more details
Jobymon Skaria (St Patrick's Pontifical University) - St. Thomas Christians'encounter with the caste system in South India
Thursday 21 March, 5-6pm,
venue: TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor
This lecture examines the scandalous history of St Thomas Christians’ encounter with the caste system. Click here for more details
venue: TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor
This lecture examines the scandalous history of St Thomas Christians’ encounter with the caste system. Click here for more details
Dieter Gunkel (University of Richmond) - The syntactic expression of polarity focus in Vedic prose
Tuesday 19 March, 4-5pm, ,
venue: TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor
This presentation explores how polarity focus is expressed in Vedic Sanskrit prose texts, especially the Aitareya-Brāhmaṇa (AB) and the Jaiminīya-Brāhmaṇa (JB). Click here for more details
venue: TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor
This presentation explores how polarity focus is expressed in Vedic Sanskrit prose texts, especially the Aitareya-Brāhmaṇa (AB) and the Jaiminīya-Brāhmaṇa (JB). Click here for more details
Webinar: Binbin Xu (Xiamen University) - 论闽南方言多功能词“kaʔ”的音义共变模式 / The Coevolution of Form and Meaning of the Multifunctional Word kaʔ in Southern Min Dialects
Friday 15 March, 10:30 am-12pm (Dublin), 18:30 pm - 20:00 pm (Beijing).
Note: This event is in Chinese,
venue: Zoom Click here for more details
Note: This event is in Chinese,
venue: Zoom Click here for more details
International conference: What We Talk About When We Talk About Haruki Murakami’s Translators: Their Roles and Significance (村上春樹の翻訳者について語るときに我々の語ること)
29 May 2024, 09:45AM-18:00PM (Tokyo), venue: Hydrid Format- The Haruki Murakami Library, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan (in Japanese/English).
30 May 2024, 09:45AM-18:30PM (Dublin) venue: Hydrid Format- Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation (TCLCT), Trinity College Dublin, Ireland (in English).
These conferences shed light on Murakami’s translators and the significance of their roles in the publication and circulation of his novels. Click here for more details
30 May 2024, 09:45AM-18:30PM (Dublin) venue: Hydrid Format- Centre for Literary and Cultural Translation (TCLCT), Trinity College Dublin, Ireland (in English).
These conferences shed light on Murakami’s translators and the significance of their roles in the publication and circulation of his novels. Click here for more details
Muhammad Ilyas (Trinity College Dublin) - Light Verb Constructions in Balti, Tibetan
Tuesday 12 March, 4-5pm, venue: TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor. This presentation explores the light verb constructions of Balti, a Tibetan language spoken in northern Pakistan. Click here for more details
Webinar: Jonathan Smith (Christop her Newport University) - New digital resources for the study of historical and comparative Mǐn
Friday 8 March, 3:30-5pm (Dublin), 10:30am-12pm (Virginia), venue: Zoom. Data on modern Mǐn languages is increasingly plentiful, and Romanized materials dating to the 19th century bear important early witness to the languages of Amoy, Teochew, Hokchiu, and others. However, many of these resources are difficult to access and leverage. In this talk, I aim to describe (1) key sources and their nature; (2) some of my recent efforts at organization and digitization; and also (3) a few notable language features thus rendered more amenable to study. Click here for more details
Japan and Ireland: A Conversation with Ambassador Maruyama Norio
Thursday 7 March 2024, 6.15pm , venue: Neill Lecture Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin. The Trinity Centre for Asian Studies and the Trinity Long Room Hub are pleased to host a special discussion with His Excellency, Maruyama Norio, Ambassador of Japan to Ireland. The Ambassador will be welcomed by Professor Emma Stokes, Vice President for Global Engagement, and the discussion hosted by Professor Lorna Carson, Head of the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Science, Trinity College Dublin. Click here for more details
Webinar: Yang Wanglong (Xiamen University) - 沿海闽语强化类方位词重叠的共性特征 / Some universals of localizer reduplication with intensified meaning in inshore-Min dialects (note: this event is in Chinese)
Friday 1 March-10:30am-12:00pm (Dublin), 6:30-8pm (Beijing) , venue: Zoom. Click here for more details
Year of the Dragon, podcast with Professor Isabella Jackson
Professor Isabella Jackson, Assistant Professor in Chinese History, here at TCD was recently interviewed by Newstalk about the Chinese New Year. Please click here for link to the interview
TCAS hosts workshop on automatic speech recognition for minority Asian languages
On 19 January 2024, TCAS hosted a hands-on training in the development of automatic speech recognition (ASR) studied languages. The training was led by Dr Alexander O’Neill and Liam Lonergan. Alexander is a postdoctoral researcher at SOAS University of London specializing in Sanskrit Buddhist texts and Newar language processing. Liam is a PhD student at the Trinity Phonetics and Speech Laboratory, who is developing an Irish ASR model as part of his doctoral research. The event provided participants with valuable skills in data normalization, model training, and data augmentation techniques. An attendee, Dr Tim Bodt, successfully created a model for Kusunda, a language isolate from Nepal with only one remaining speaker; great progress as also made on models for Khroskyabs and Tujia, two endangered Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in China.
Sichuan: Diversity, Heritage, and Transformation
Thursday 1 February 2024, 12:30-4:30pm, Trinity Long Room Hub, Neill Lecture Theatre
Yunfan Lai awarded the Anna Siewierska Award by Societas Linguistica Europaea
Yunfan Lai, post-doctoral researcher and Principal Investigator of the GyU-LHA project under the SFI-IRC Pathway Programme at TCAS, has been awarded the 2023 Anna Siewierska Award for his paper entitled "When internal reconstruction goes further: Proposing the vowel system of Pre-Khroskyabs through examining bound state apophony,"
Alexander James O’Neill (SOAS University of London) – Breaking the Textual Fourth Wall: On Paratextuality and Self-Referentiality in Mahāyāna Sūtra Literature
Thursday 18 January 2024, 5:30-7pm, Arts Building, Room 4050A
Adrian Tien Prize awarded to Joseph Mossop
We are delighted to announce that Joseph Mossop has been awarded the Adrian Tien Prize for his exceptional dissertation titled, "An Investigation into China’s Past, Present, and Future in Global Environmental Politics."
Congratulations to the 2023-24 Chinese Studies scholarship recipients
These scholarships are a testament to the dedication and excellence of our students, and we look forward to the remarkable contributions they will make to our academic community. Warmest congratulations to Chen Min, Wu Yingru, Lei Mingyang, and Kim Eunseon on their remarkable achievements
Mario De Grandis (University College Dublin) - Mapping the Central-Peripheral Dynamic: Literary Platforms in the Field of Huizu wenxue
Thursday 9 November, 5-6pm, TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor.
Jingqi Ying (TCD) - The Old Chinese Sound Change *-ps > *-ts > -jH: Insights from Zhou Excavated Documents
Tuesday 7 November, 4-5:30pm, TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor.
Wenqing Kang (Cleveland State University) - Reemergence of Public Discussion on Homosexuality in 1980s and 1990s China
Thursday 19 October, 5-6pm, TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor.
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William Marotti (UCLA) - The Performance of Police and the Theater of Protest, from Japan 1968 to BLM
Thursday 28 September, 5-6pm, TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor
Muhammad Zakaria (Independent researcher) - The Historical Development of Causative/Applicative and Middle Constructions in Southeastern and Southwestern Kuki-Chin
Tuesday 26 September, 4-5:30pm, TRiSS Seminar Room, Arts Building, sixth floor
Dr Chiu and Dr Ip make a donation to the Trinity Centre for Asian Studies for scholarships in the MPhil Chinese Studies for students from China and Hong Kong
Dr Jonathan KS Chiu, Trinity medical alumnus from the class of 1966 and his wife Dr Margaret Sau-Sheung Ip have kindly established a scholarship fund to support students from China and Hong Kong to come to Trinity to enroll on the MPhil in Chinese Studies over the next 5 years.
Tristan Brown (MIT) - The Unlikely Audiences of a Muslim King’s Shrine in China
Tuesday 16 May, 4-5pm, Trinity Long Room Hub, Neill Lecture Theatre
Tristan Brown (MIT) - Laws of the Land: Fengshui and the State in Qing Dynasty China
Thursday 11 May, 4-5pm, Arts Building sixth floor, TRiSS Seminar Room
Sojin Lim (University of Central Lancashire) - International Aid and Sustainable Development in North Korea
Thursday 13 April, 6:30-7:30pm, Trinity College Dublin, Arts Building, Room 4047
Lingzi Zhuang (University of Toronto Mississauga) - A preliminary “mix-ology” of messy Tibetan verb paradigms
Wednesday 12 April, 4-5pm, Trinity Long Room Hub, Galbraith Room
Hannes A. Fellner (University of Vienna) - 名不正，則言不順– Language contact in the borderlands of the Western Regions
Friday 31 March, 4-5pm, Galbraith Room, Trinity Long Room Hub
Nathaniel Sims (CRLAO-CNRS) - A roadmap to reconstructing proto-Rma
Wednesday 22 March, 4-5pm, Arts Building, Room 4073
First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel
Tuesday 21 February 2023, 6:30-7:30pm, online
Mel Cousins (Trinity College Dublin) - Getting old before getting rich? Challenges to the sustainability of the Chinese pension system
Friday 2 December 2022, 12-1pm, Trinity Centre for Asian Studies, Arts Building Annex, Room 2012
Lecture: Raymond J. Davidson Jr. (Trinity College Dublin & Rowan University) - Zhuangzi and Rorty: Contingency, Irony, and Cruelty
Friday 4 November 2022, 12-1pm, Trinity Centre for Asian Studies, Arts Building Annex, Room 2012
A paleogenomic time travel to pre- and proto-historic Japan
Friday 21 October 2022, 12-1pm Trinity Centre for Asian Studies, Arts Building Annex, Room 2012
The changing pronunciation of Chinese during the Han dynasty: applying graph theory to poetic rhymes
Friday 14 October, 10am-4pm, Trinity Long Room Hub, Neill Lecture Theatre
Sino-African Relations and the War in Ukraine
Wednesday 28 September 2022, 12-1pm, Trinity Centre for Asian Studies, Arts Building Annex, Room 2012
Understanding the Constitution of Japan: comparison and analysis
Tuesday 30 August, 1:30-4:15pm
Webinar: Isabella Weber (University of Massachusetts Amherst) - Price Controls versus Economic Warfare: Hyperinflation and the Communist Revolution
Friday 1 April, 12-1pm
Webinar: Rebecca E. Karl (New York University) - The Socialist Law of Value and the Rural Economy: Wang Yanan and Marxism in China, 1950s
Friday 25 March, 12-1pm
Webinar: Edwin Michielsen (University of Toronto) - Celebrating the Proletariat: May Day Strikes and Syntheses of Solidarity
Friday 4 March, 12-1pm
PhD position in Gyalrongic (Sino-Tibetan) descriptive and historical linguistics
Deadline for application: 31st March 2022
Viren Murthy (University of Wisconsin Madison) - Back to the Future: Reflections on Tamil Marxism, Anti-Colonial Nationalism and Identity Politics
Friday 25 Feb, 4.30-5.30pm
Webinar: Li Shang (Swansea University) - A fresh look at Marx's understanding of the Asiatic mode of production
Friday 4 February 2022, 12-1pm
Webinar: Dr Yushu Geng - From Wise Mother/Good Wife to Tiger Mom: women in 20th century China
Tuesday 1st February 2022, 6pm
Webinar: Professor Nathan Hill - The word for 'tiger' in Chinese and other Asian languages
Monday 31st January 2022, 6pm
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Webinar: Dr Dong Jin Kim - Global Health Diplomacy and North Korea: Ending the Quarantine of Humanitarianism in 2022
Friday 28 January 2022, 6pm
Webinar: Alexander Statman - Ancient Wisdom and Unhistorical History: Hegel's Encounter with Chinese Philosophy
Thursday 27 January 2022, 6-7pm
Webinar: Gerald Roche (La Trobe University) - Language Oppression in China: What Does it Look Like?
Friday 26 November, noon-1pm
Webinar: James Leibold (La Trobe University) - Taming Mongolia: Xi Jinping’s Agenda for Coercive Nation Building in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region
Friday 19 November, 11am-noon
Webinar: Dr Qi Zhang (Dublin City University) - The trilingual education for ethnic minorities: field studies of the Tujia, the Uyghurs and the Inner Mongolian
Friday 12 November, noon-1pm
Webinar: Naomi Yamada (Meiji) - Changing approaches to positive discrimination in education in China
Friday 5 November, noon-1pm
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Webinar: Wenyu Du (Beihang) -- AI-enabled digital transformation and innovation in China
20th October, 12pm-1pm
Webinar: Lin Boqiang (Xiamen University) Evolution of China’s Energy Policy
Thursday 14 October, 12pm
Webinar: Linda Tsung (Sydney) - Multi-model approaches in multilingual education in China
Friday 8 October, noon-1pm
Webinar: Julia C. Schneider (Cork) - Who belongs to the Chinese nation? Inclusion and exclusion in Chinese Republican historiography
Friday 1 October, noon-1pm